Russia seeds chatbots with lies. Any bad actor could game AI the same way

[gargamon]

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/world/2025/04/17/russia-seeds-chatbots-with-lies-any-bad-actor-could-game-ai-the-same-way/83137756007/

 

Russia is automating the spread of false information to fool artificial intelligence chatbots on key topics, offering a playbook to other bad actors on how to game AI to push content meant to inflame, influence and obfuscate instead of inform.

Experts warn the problem is worsening as more people rely on chatbots rushed to market, social media companies cut back on moderation and the Trump administration disbands government teams fighting disinformation.

Earlier this year, when researchers asked 10 leading chatbots about topics targeted by false Russian messaging, such as the claim that the United States was making bioweapons in Ukraine, a third of the responses repeated those lies.

Moscow’s propaganda inroads highlight a fundamental weakness of the AI industry: Chatbot answersdepend on the data fed into them. A guiding principle is that the more the chatbots read, the more informed their answers will be, which is why the industry is ravenous for content.But mass quantities of well-aimed chaff can skew the answers on specific topics. For Russia, that is the war in Ukraine. But for a politician, it could be an opponent; for a commercial firm, it could be a competitor.

“Most chatbots struggle with disinformation,” said Giada Pistilli, principal ethicist at open-source AI platform Hugging Face. “They have basic safeguards against harmful content but can’t reliably spot sophisticated propaganda, [and] the problem gets worse with search-augmented systems that prioritize recent information.”

[JimHuaHin]

Surprised not; several countries are using AI to misinform the people, including China and the USA (read MAGA supporters).

[Digitalbanana]

Seem to be a few on this forum.

[johng]

If the biolabs in Ukraine are real  (denied at first remember)

but are innocuous

then why are the US afraid they will fall into Russian hands ?

 

see the article does what the so called "fact checkers" do a lot of the time...they admit that there are indeed the things previously dismissed as conspiracy theories

(biolabs in Ukraine)

but home in on one tiny little detail

like the US making bio weapons

(when most  likely it was Ukraine)

and use the little detail to try and dismiss the kaboodle as someone else's propaganda.

 

A recent study into AI  revealed that it will in certain circumstances lie to save its own skin and try to escape the lab given half the chance.

It's use should be highly regulated

but already too late now.

 

[candide]

3 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

Seem to be a few on this forum.

No need for Russian chatbots, there are enoug 'human' posters to do the same job on AN!   

[FlorC]

Russia seeds chatbots with lies

 

Just like google and others do. 

Western AI is steered to the government naritive.

Is Russia seeding chatbots with lies or an alternative view , as more truthful ?

[John Drake]

Complete misunderstanding of how to use AI. You need to bring knowledge you already have to make AI work properly. In effect, you need to be able to make connections and then have AI "converse" with those connections. If you don't know anything to begin with, you're essentially going to receive what is nothing more than search engine results. Go to Grok, for example, and you'll find there are two entirely different ways it communicates, one is informational and the other is give and take and fill elliptical spaces. People not using AI properly are going to be left in the dust.

[NoDisplayName]

On 4/20/2025 at 3:16 AM, gargamon said:

Russia is automating the spread of false information to fool artificial intelligence chatbots on key topics, offering a playbook to other bad actors on how to game AI to push content meant to inflame, influence and obfuscate instead of inform.

 

Hmmm...........or could it be we've made our AI's too adept, that they are now capable of seeing through the western propaganda, and find that some of what we like to call Russian disinformation are simply facts that don't agree with our preferred, government-approved narrative?